Burning Bright
by Lyoness of Avalon
Summary: A new hunt takes the Winchester family to rural New York where the girl that led them to the case may lead them to its conclusion. Pre-series
1. Cry for Help

A/N: I had this idea pop up a few years ago, but it took until now to actually get it. Can easily be read as a pre-series fun story and ends properly, but it may carry on in the future. I do not own Supernatural or the CW, sadly.

* * *

Caroline Lockwood waved goodbye to her friends after a day hanging out and began her walk home. When the blonde was alone, the presence that had been lurking flew down from the sky and snatched her up screaming.

* * *

The Winchester family was in between jobs, eating at a cheap diner somewhere in Colorado. Sam had finished his food and was perusing the news on his laptop. It was his eighteenth birthday gift to himself and barely a month old.

"Hey dad," he said, pushing his floppy brown hair away from his eyes. "I think I've got a lead."

"Great," John replied. "Hold on a minute," he added as his phone rang.

Moments before, in another part of the country, Theresa Lennox had taken deep breath and punched the scribbled numbers written on the old piece of paper into her phone.

"Hello is this John Winchester?" she asked quickly, before the other end could speak.

"Who's asking?" the voice on the other end queried, surprised.

"Reece Lennox."

John asked, at once surprised and suspicious, "How did you get this number?" He knew everyone who could dial this phone number well and none were this young.

"Angie Hawking, in Pennsylvania. I need help and she gave me your number," she replied, tumbling over the words in her hurry. "There's something wrong in my town."

Sam looked at Dean as their father asked, "Where are you? What's going on?"

"North Elba, New York. Some farms have cows that have just disappeared, which was weird, but two people have vanished in the past three weeks."

John hung up a moment later, after promising to be there in three days.

"Let's go boys," he said, picking his coat up and heading for the door of the diner.

"Dad, I just found a place in upstate New York," Sam started, hurrying to stow his laptop.

"That's where we're going Sammy. Some girl up there beat you to it."

* * *

When the Impala pulled into the driveway, the young woman in the yard waved to them and walked over.

Dean looked out at her. A glance took in brown hair, dark skin, and denim. His green eyes slipped slowly down and back up to meet her brown ones glaring at him through the window.

Sam punched him. "Dude, quit staring."

Reaching the car, the girl turned her gaze to the front seat. "Hi, I'm Reece, you must be John Winchester."

"That I am. You can call me John. These are my boys, Sam and Dean." He jerked a thumb to the backseat, where Sam nodded and Dean grinned.

"Come on in." Reece led the Winchesters up to the farmhouse and went in through the kitchen door. She went to the fridge and pulled out four cans of soda and gave one to each of the men, keeping one for her.

"Thank goodness you guys could make it out. I'm in trouble out here." She looked around the room, the asked, "you guys are hunters, right?"

No one said anything.

"I called you. I don't know what I'm up against and I'm not against calling for help."

Sam raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, hell no," his brother said softly.

"You want our help on your case?" John asked.

"Yeah. Two girls have gone missing in the last fortnight. I'm drawing blanks."

"You're telling me you're a hunter?" Dean asked in disbelief, a little behind in the conversation.

"I've been doing this job for years." She eyed Dean, daring him to comment again.

Sam spoke for the first time, dispelling some of the tension. "Is there anything else you know? Something that you might not think has to do with the case?"

She shrugged. "There've been a couple of fires, one family wasn't home and in the other everyone was killed. That one was over in Newcomb. You should ask around though, and see what everyone else knows. No one's going to tell me anything."

"It's hit more than one place?" Dean frowned, getting his mind on the case. "Has it moved randomly or with some kind of pattern?"

"I'm not sure. Let me get all of the info I have." Reece hurried out of the room. Moments later they could hear her steps on the staircase.

"What're we going to do with her?" Dean asked his father. "There's no way she's actually a hunter."

"I don't know, Dean," John replied. "She probably knew those girls though."

"You think that's it?" Sam asked.

Reece came back down the stairs before John could answer, clutching a binder full of newspaper clippings and notes. "Alright, I think this is everything on the missing animals and people. Is there anything else you guys need to right now?"

"How did you learn about hunting?" John asked bluntly.

"Fair enough," she said lightly, masking her discomposure.

"So talk," Dean ordered, settling down again at the kitchen table.

"I got your number from my cousin, Chloe Sullivan. Angie's number came at a later time." She explained this without apology or remorse.

"Do we know her?" Dean muttered to Sam. The younger boy frowned, unsure.

Reece continued. "She got it from her mother, Moira. Most of the info I have on hunting came from them."

John looked hard at the girl. She was leaving something out. A lot of the people they questioned did. He'd get it out of her eventually.

"Are we done here?" Sam asked impatiently. "We should get moving if we want to figure out what this thing is."

"Chloe's coming in to town tomorrow. I couldn't get her to hold off for a week," Reece replied. "I want this over with a quickly as possible so I can give you guys a hand if you need one."

Though phased delicately, the girl was clearly not going to allow her hunt to get away from her. The Winchesters would be getting more help than they bargained for and none of them were pleased.

"How much help are you going to be?" Dean wasn't sure he believed her story about hunting relatives.

"You're joking, right? I've been hunting since I was fourteen," Reece said peevishly. "I've been researching this thing for a few weeks now too."

"You should keep working on that." John seized on the chance to take Sam out to canvas a town properly, giving the younger boy a fuller look at their job. It wouldn't hurt for Dean to actually do a little research for once, either. Provided the brunette was telling the truth, she would be able to help them to get started. "Dean, you go with Reece, see if you can find out what we're up against. Sam and I will ask the locals."

"Dad, it might be better if I do the research. Dean and computers…" Sam stopped speaking at the look on John's face, though he had wanted to mention Dean and girls as well. Tomorrow though, his brother could go knocking on strangers' doors.

"Dean'll manage. We'll be back in a few hours." With that, John led his younger son out the door.

"Just us sweetheart? All alone in your big old house?" The older boy asked smoothly not five seconds after the door closed.

"Cut the crap Casanova," she threw over her shoulder. "Let's get going."

They headed outside, where Reece stopped beside a very large, very dirty red Chevy pickup.

"Yours?" Dean asked.

"All mine," she replied. "Hop in."

As she started the truck, the sound of Aerosmith filled the cab.

"Nice tunes," he commented.

They bonded a bit, singing along with Steven Tyler for the time it took to get to the town library.

Dean groaned. "I hate hitting the books."

"Buck up. It'll be a learning experience for us both."

The library was small enough that they didn't need to ask where the section on paranormal was. They grabbed half a dozen books each and sat down at the only table.

"Ok, we're got dead cattle and missing girls."

"Not that much to go on," Dean muttered.

Reece pulled a creature encyclopedia from the pile and started paging through it. "Could be a vamp."

"No, we ganked the last one years ago," he replied.

"Only in the states. There's plenty in Europe still."

"Fine, add them," he said tetchily. "What about witches?"

"What sort of spell needs a dozen cows and two girls?"

"Maybe they've got a convention going on somewhere."

"And took everything over a span of a month?" she asked a little doubtfully, but added it nonetheless.

An hour and many more arguments later, the list had grown substantially.

"Seriously?" Dean growled, finally looking at it. "We've knocked off wendigos, werewolves, anything water based, and…that's about it. Has this sort of thing happened here before?"

"I don't know. Not since I've been alive."

"Where are the old newspapers? We can start looking from the time you were born and work backwards. "

"Or we could just ask the eighty year old librarian." She grinned and patted him on the shoulder. "You look like you've been sucking on a lemon. Cheer up Dean. You can't think of everything."

With that, she headed up to the front desk, ignoring the feel of Dean's eyes on her. She returned a minute later.

"She's never heard of anything, so nothing in living memory. We can check out the history of the area when it was first settled though.

They jotted down anything they found. Dean discovered that the area used to have a goblin problem, but that had been taken care of years ago. The only thing really of note was a train that had been overturned a month ago.

"How the hell'd you forget about that?" Dean asked.

"Not sure," Reece blew her bangs out of her face. "It was a couple weeks before everything else started. How big does this thing have to be to flip a train?"

"It doesn't have to be big," Dean replied. "Just freakishly strong."

They took the new notes and crossed them with the creature list. Dean was able to cross off a few more, but Reece insisted on adding dragons to the list. Dean told her the beasts didn't exist.

"Most 'myths' have a basis in fact. Why does this one thing not exist when everything else does?"

"Bigfoot doesn't exist," was Dean's rather lame comeback.

"We've got fires, missing cows," she looked at the notes again, "and reports of valuables disappearing. Plus the overturned train. Add the missing girls to that, and it feels dragon-ish to me."

"They don't exist," he said, exasperated. "We'll add it, if it'll make you happy."

"It will."

"And shut you up," he couldn't help adding.

She glared at him, but simply said, "Let's get this information back to your daddy and see what he can make out of it."

They packed up quickly and Reece waved to the librarian as she walked out, Dean trailing behind her.

Once they were in the truck, Dean commented, "You know, you shouldn't want to get into hunting."

She was quiet for a moment. "I didn't want to. But it's been three years and now my best friend is missing. I'm not stopping anytime soon."

"Your best friend?"

"She went missing three days ago."

"And you didn't think to tell us before now?" he ran a hand over his hair. His dad was going to be pissed.

"I knew what you would say," she replied softly. "If it hadn't been Caroline, maybe I wouldn't have called you. I would be on the case anyway. It was my hunt before she disappeared."

"Now it's personal?"

"I don't know," she said, frustrated. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "It attacked my town. It was personal before."

"You can't let your feelings get in your way during a job," he told her.

She looked at him sharply. "You think I don't know that? My feelings aren't what's going to finish this job. I am."

The sandy blond looked hard at her. He saw determination he hadn't noticed earlier and exhaled softly in defeat. "Alright, at least I can tell Dad I tried."

He turned the music up, put his hands behind his head and sang along softly, thinking about what to really tell his father.

Reece got him back to the motel and offered to help with the ongoing research. While they were plying through old books the girl mentioned her cousin coming in again.

"What's the big deal about your cousin showing up?" Dean asked as he reclined on the armchair of the motel room. "Doesn't she know everything already?"

"She's fifteen! She needs a break from this shit."

He sat up, saying, "We can keep her safe. There are four hunters here. Hell, we can tie her to a chair to keep her out of the way if it makes you feel better."

She laughed a little at that and they settled in to look over their notes until Sam and John made their way back. Reece eventually went back home and the Winchesters continued to look over their information.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed behind her. "Dad, I think we have a problem."

* * *

For the record, Sam has been trying to avoid John as much as possible. He's starting to learn how to pick his battles, but he's also set to leave for college, come hell or John Winchester. I also don't own The Vampire Diaries or Smallville, for those of you who caught the references.

Next time: What troubles comes when Reece's cousin Chloe joins the fray? Will Reece's secrets break the already fragile trust the Winchesters have in her?


	2. Something Bad

Disclaimer: I own only what you don't recognize, and I probably don't even own all of that. It is by no means necessary to have seen Smallville, I've just appropriated Chloe for my own uses.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan arrived on the Lennox doorstep the next morning escorted by Reece's brother Nick, who was home for the weekend. Reece smiled at him giving him a welcoming hug before hugging her young cousin.

"I'm so glad you're here!"

"Two months of freedom," the smaller girl said with her signature 1000 Watt grin across her face.

Nick rolled his eyes and followed the girls into the house, where he headed to his room in the basement while the girls moved upstairs.

Chloe and Reece chattered up the stairs, thumping the little blonde's suitcase and slamming the bedroom door closed. Once Reece had turned some music on, Chloe stopped unpacking and asked why the brunette had wanted her to push the visit back a week.

"The Winchesters are here," she replied.

This wasn't enough information for the budding reporter, who then queried, "Are they stealing your hunt?"

Reece shook her head. "I called them in."

"I wasn't enough help?" Chloe was offended.

"It's would still be too much for us to handle, and you, my sweet cousin, fit the thing's profile."

Chloe had opened her mouth to ask what the profile was, exactly, when she was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Sam poked his head in. "Your mom said you were up here. We need to get moving." He spotted Chloe and added, "She's staying here though, right?"

"No, she's not," the blonde answered. Sam started to argue, but Chloe brushed by him and continued, "Don't try to give me orders. I'm here, I'm helping."

When Reece jointed her ahead of Sam, Chloe whispered, "That's a Winchester? Were you planning to keep them both for yourself?"

"Actually, I was hoping this would be over and them gone before you got here."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "This year has been hell, and while I appreciate your attempt to make this a normal summer, it just isn't in the cards."

* * *

They spent that afternoon and the next two days pouring through old books, calling associates, looking online and interviewing citizens. Reece's truck became a shuttling vehicle used to haul Sam and Dean over to the library for a few precious hours of research while John scoured the town. Reece and Chloe spent as much time as they could spare in the motel going over more details. When they couldn't sneak away, the girls went looked over what they could at the Lennox home.

As a guest, Chloe was visited the whole family, not just her female cousin. Thus, chores were done in the morning, dinner was often eaten as a family, and games were sometimes played in the evening. There were six people in Reece's family but right now it was short two brothers, with one working out west and the other staying in school for the summer term. So it was that Chloe was relaxing the living room with her uncle reading in his chair, her aunt writing out the monthly bills, and her cousin playing his video game. Reece and Chloe had been looking though a manuscript from John, trying to find something new. The brunette had gone upstairs to get another reference book.

"I want to take a walk," Chloe announced. As Reece would not allow Chloe out after dark until the case was wrapped up this was a chance for the younger girl to clear her head.

"Take Rocky with you," Reece's father said. The dog pricked its ears up and padded to the door.

Reece made her way back down to the living room a few minutes after the door had closed. She looked around, not seeing her cousin.

"Where's Chloe?"

"She took the dog out for a walk," her mother replied.

Reece went pale and ran out the door without another word. Her mother made a sort of uncomprehending noise, looking to her husband. Nick's eyes widened and got up and started after her, their father close behind. Reece had barely made it off the stoop before she heard a scream. She could hear the collie barking nearby and ran toward the sound. The brunette heard wing beats under Chloe's continued screams but could see nothing but stars above her.

Nick's feet pounded the ground as Chloe's screams filled his ears. He could see Reece ahead of him, running toward the orchard. Reece's screams were taking Chloe's place.

"No!" she yelled. "No, Chloe, no!"

She sank to the ground sobbing. Nick placed a hand on her shoulder, which she shrugged off. He sat down next her, while their father arrived and began searching for his niece.

"She's gone," Reece said hoarsely.

"Gone?" Nick repeated.

"Taken," his sister said softly. "We won't find her."

Nick called to his father and helped Reece up. They returned to the house together and after her father called the police, Reece phoned the Winchesters, explaining what had happened.

"We'll be there soon." John could hear the tears that were nearly breaking through.

John dropped the boys off unceremoniously at her front door while he took a solo tour of the area. He wasn't good at comforting the helpless. Reece wanted to look over everything and the boys complied. They sat around the kitchen table rehashing the information, trying to add to it with what they had learned from Chloe's disappearance.

Suddenly, Reece stood, saying. "I need a smoke. You can help yourselves to anything in the kitchen."

Dean watched the brunette head into the garage and didn't see her emerge for nearly twenty minutes, coming right back out of the garage. He knew he hadn't missed her but there was no way she was smoking in there. The blonde wondered what she was doing. His brother wondered if she had been crying.

Once Reece had vanished from sight Dean shifted the topic slightly. "You heard what Dad said last night about her."

"Yeah and I think he's wrong." Sam glared at his brother.

This launched into an argument over Reece's involvement in and relationship to the case. The girl knew all of the victims and her uncle's farm hadn't had any animals disappear. She had called them when her friend had vanished. She was adamant that the creature they were after was one any true hunter knew did not exist. The argument stayed quiet, as it was now nearing one in the morning. The pair agreed that Reece was holding up well under the disappearance of her friend and now her cousin.

"Suspiciously well," Dean groused. "Might be faked."

Sam waved his hand. "I still don't like it."

"I don't either." His brother shrugged. "But it's where everything is leading."

"We must have missed something," the younger boy insisted. "You're not going to tell Dad right away are you?"

"That I think she's our monster? I have to. But we'll tell him we aren't sure." Dean switched the onus of the task from himself to both of them neatly, having done it numerous times. He would just as neatly switch the blame of failure from both of them to himself alone if need be.

"Her cousin though? Who could do that?"

"Who knows what those crazy bitches are capable of?" Dean had had bad run-ins with witches over the years. One of them had hexed the Impala. "If it gets her power she might do it."

Reece opened the front door then, and they fell silent, staring at the books on the table. The brunette joined them, flipping pages despondently. This lasted only a few minutes, as Reece's mother came downstairs as John opened the door.

The two parents appraised one another. Finally, Reece's mother nodded and asked softly, "Was there anything?"

"Not yet," John replied, his eyes flicking to his sons and then to Reece. "I'll get the boys out of your hair."

Dean stood, nudging Sam to do the same and quickly collected their notes, waving as they left.

"Thanks mom," Reece said as the muffled roar of the Impala filled the air.

"Of course," Mrs. Lennox replied, stroking her daughter's hair. "Everything will be alright."

Reece make a half shrug and told her that she was going to work a little more before bed.

Her mother smiled and said, "Be sure to get a little rest before those boys come poking back around in the morning. Your father and I are leaving early to meet with the families of the other missing girls."

The girl assented and hurried out to the garage, leaving her mother to sleep for a while. She felt along the edge of the rug at the front of the door, flicking the catch on the right side to reveal a set of stairs leading away from the house. She headed down them, shutting the trapdoor behind her. At the end of the staircase, she stepped onto the landing and walked directly toward the third of four doors, leaving it open a crack when she went inside.

Meanwhile, the Winchester trio was arguing about the next step they should take.

"We need to take her out boys. That's how this works," John said firmly.

"What if it's not her?" Sam asked.

"Who else could be doing this Sam? We don't even know what she is."

"That's why we can't just go in guns blazing Dad." Dean sided with Sam, surprising John. It always surprised him.

"Dad, just don't shoot on sight, please," Sam was nearly begging. The boy was so soft-hearted. "Give her a minute to explain, if what she's doing needs explaining at all."

"You boys follow my lead and do as I say. Now stop arguing and get in the car," John ordered, tired of talking. As much as he didn't want to admit it, the boys had a point. He couldn't shoot an innocent-it left the taste of guilt in his mouth for far too long.

They drove back to the Lennox home, parking the Impala far enough away from the house to escape notice. John and Dean went to the trunk. Sam hovered in the background while they tossed supplies into a duffel and grabbed a gun each, Dean passing another to Sam.

The three men walked to the house in silence. John gestured to Sam, who picked the lock on the garage door with ease. John entered first and the boys followed. They spread out and began searching for any clues to Reece's secret. Dean tried to move the carpet in front of the door to the house, and then noticed the nails attaching it to the ground. Curious, he ran his hand around its edges. His fingers caught the latch and he pulled it, lifting the doormat and a part of the floor.

"Dad, Sam," he whispered. "I found it. There's a secret passage."

John put a hand on his son's shoulder, a silent acknowledgement. "I go first. Dean, bring up the rear."

"Yes sir." Dean took the safety off his gun and heard John do the same.

As Sam followed his father down the stairs, he wondered if the girl who had been so hospitable was truly the cause of the disappearances. He would have liked to say that it was impossible, that a person couldn't do that, but he'd known better for ten years.

At the bottom of the stairs, they reached a small antechamber with four doors. One was slightly ajar, light spilling through the crack.

John waved to the boys signaling them to flatten against the wall. He pushed the door open with one hand, training his gun on Reece's back with the other.


End file.
